Hope springs eternal on huge Saturday in the sun for Ayr and Newbury

Spring has sprung, the grass is riz. I wonder where the birdies is?

Forget the birdies. Forget waking up the lawnmower to deal with the grass that has riz. This is a time to lie back and enjoy the very best that spring racing can offer.

It was a long winter of dismal discontent, with the rain pausing only to allow the snow a look-in. Cheltenham and Aintree were a muddy mess for anything other than soft-ground horses and Wellington boot salesmen and in between times the entire Easter Monday programme was wiped out.

Then the weather went too far the other way and the hottest April day in generations caused a race to be abandoned owing to fears of heat exhaustion.

But this is Goldilocks day. Not too hot or cold, not too soft or too firm, just right for two of the most important races of the spring.

Weather turns in the National interest

Ayr will be desperately hoping this really is the season of rebirth and renewal as its troubled winter actually started when the calendar had scarcely entered autumn.

Back last September the track had to abandon the entire Gold Cup meeting as a drainage problem created an unsafe patch of ground.

The drainage has been seriously tested since then as the rain has been as ceaseless here as anywhere else – it has had 15 jumps meetings since the start of November and the ground was heavy or a variant on it at all those that were not cancelled.

But the weather has finally turned at a track that had officially zero hours of sunshine in December and, whisper it quietly, the ground could be nudging good by the time the Coral Scottish Grand National is run.

Which is a key thing to factor in when attempting the inordinately tricky task of picking the winner of a 30-runner handicap chase.

This is the fourth-biggest betting race of the year, according to sponsor Coral, but that's not because it's easy to crack.

Only one of the field was not available at a double-figure price on Friday morning and that was, understandably, Vicente, who's won it for the last two years.

A Scottish National hat-trick is rare but not unprecedented – there are probably bookmakers in these parts with ancestral memories of the infernal Couvrefeu II, successful in 1911, 1912 and 1913.

If it's real history you want, then Fagan is the one to cheer for. Gordon Elliott is fresh from victories in the Grand National (with Tiger Roll) and Irish Grand National (General Principle) and bids to become the first trainer to land all three spring Nationals in the same season.

A week on from Tiger Roll's Aintree success, Gordon Elliott and Davy Russell hope to be celebrating once againCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

Coral Scottish Grand National Handicap Chase, card, form and betting

Chance to see Expert in action

Elliott has won the Ebor and Queen Alexandra Stakes in recent years and could probably do some serious damage on the Flat in Britain if he turned his mind to it full-time.

Then again, Sir Michael Stoute could give the likes of him a run for his money if he switched to jumping permanently – remember Champion Hurdle winner Kribensis?

But why suffer the winter weather when you've been so hot at the summer game for so long? He first won the Greenham Stakes at Newbury with Final Straw in 1980, when Elliott was two years old.

This has become a key race of late with recent winners including champion milers Kingman and Olympic Glory, champion sprinter Muhaarar and Frankel, who was just a champion.

And indications are that his Expert Eye is held in very high regard – when the laconic Stoute says 'we've always rated him', you sit up and take notice.

Which is what racegoers did when the colt bolted up in the Vintage Stakes at Goodwood last summer, scoring with an ease rarely seen in Group 2 company – so much so that he was backed into favourite for the Qipco 2,000 Guineas afterwards.

Those did not look the shrewdest of ante-post bets when Expert Eye trailed in last in the Dewhurst at Newmarket, yet Stoute points to his having "played around a lot at the start" that day, and no trainer is better at getting a Classic colt back on track.

Al Basti Equiworld Supporting Greatwood Greenham Stakes, card, from and betting

The trainer has another of Khalid Abdullah's impeccably bred three-year-olds in action in the evening when Urbino tackles the 1m4f maiden at Wolverhampton.

Among his rivals is Elgin, fifth in the Champion Hurdle for Alan King and now making his debut on the level – this really is a day when Flat and jumps share the limelight.

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